HIGH POINT, N.C. – Thomas Built Buses (TBB), a leading manufacturer of school buses in North America and a division of Daimler Truck Specialty Vehicles, today announced the launch of a new gasoline engine option for the Saf-T-Liner C2 school bus at STN Expo East, taking place March 26–31, 2026 in Charlotte/Concord, North Carolina. The Saf-T-Liner C2 Gasoline is equipped with the B6.7 Octane engine produced by global power leader Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI).

With the addition of gasoline, Thomas Built Buses continues to expand its powertrain lineup — now offering diesel, electric and gasoline options — giving school districts greater flexibility to choose the solution that best fits their fleet goals, infrastructure and operational needs.

“With the Cummins B6.7 Octane engine, fleets gain a dependable solution that complements our proven diesel and electric offerings, giving them more choice in how they operate,” said T.J. Reed, president and CEO of Daimler Truck Specialty Vehicles. “We’re proud to expand our lineup with solutions that reflect the real-world needs of school districts — whether that’s simplifying maintenance, managing costs or planning for the future with diesel, electric or now gasoline.”

“Cummins’ longstanding partnership with Thomas Built Buses reflects our shared commitment to delivering safe and reliable transportation for students across the country,” said Nikki Wheeldon, general manager of North America bus sales at Cummins. “The integration of the B6.7 Octane highlights our continued focus on excellence and innovation. Together, we’re driving performance where it matters most.”

The Cummins B6.7 Octane is a purpose-built, durable, turbocharged gasoline engine for medium-duty applications, the first of its kind in the category. With up to 2 million miles logged before production, the engine features a broad, flat torque curve that mirrors Cummins’ trusted B6.7 diesel platform. The B6.7 Octane by Cummins will be available in the Saf-T-Liner C2 Gasoline in 220- and 260-horsepower ratings, delivering up to 600 lb-ft of torque.

Designed to provide familiar drivability and smooth power at low speeds, the B6.7 Octane also introduces an optional integrated compression brake for improved vehicle control and reduced brake wear — an industry-first for gasoline school buses.

In addition to robust performance, the Saf-T-Liner C2 Gasoline delivers key advantages in total cost and serviceability:

Strong fuel economy for lower operating costs.
2-3x longer service intervals, including oil and filter changes up to 15,000 miles.
Runs on regular 87-octane gasoline, making it easy to refuel within existing fueling infrastructure.
Engineered for cold-weather readiness and high idle tolerance, making it well suited for diverse operating environments.
Offers school districts a familiar chassis and body design, helping streamline technician training, maintenance routines and driver familiarity.

“By offering this gasoline option, we’re helping school districts simplify operations, manage costs and maintain reliable, year-round performance,” said Daoud Chaaya, vice president of sales, aftermarket and marketing at Thomas Built Buses. “Built on our trusted C2 platform, it supports technician and driver familiarity while ensuring safe, dependable transportation for students. This addition reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience.”

Production for the Saf-T-Liner C2 Gasoline is targeted to begin in late 2026.

For more information, visit thomasbuiltbuses.com/gasoline.

About Thomas Built Buses:
Founded in 1916, Thomas Built Buses is a leading manufacturer of school buses in North America. Since the first Thomas Built bus rolled off the assembly line, the company has been committed to delivering the smartest and most innovative buses in North America. Learn more at thomasbuiltbuses.com or facebook.com/thomasbuiltbuses.

Thomas Built Buses, Inc., headquartered in High Point, North Carolina, is a subsidiary of Daimler Truck North America LLC, a leading provider of comprehensive products and technologies for the commercial transportation industry. The company designs, engineers, manufactures and markets medium- and heavy-duty trucks, school buses, vehicle chassis and their associated technologies and components under the Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses, Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp and Detroit brands. Thomas Built Buses and Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp. together form Daimler Truck Specialty Vehicles. Daimler Truck North America is a subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG, one of the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers.

About Cummins Inc.
Cummins Inc., a global power leader, is committed to powering a more prosperous world. Since 1919, we have delivered innovative solutions that move people, goods and economies forward. Our five business segments — Engine, Components, Distribution, Power Systems and Accelera by Cummins — offer a broad portfolio, including advanced diesel, electric and hybrid powertrains; integrated power generation systems; critical components such as aftertreatment, turbochargers, fuel systems, controls, transmissions, axles and brakes; and zero-emissions technologies like battery and electric powertrain systems. With a global footprint, deep technical expertise and an extensive service network, we deliver dependable, cutting-edge solutions tailored to our customers’ needs, supporting them through the energy transition with our Destination Zero strategy. We create value for customers, investors and employees and strengthen communities through our corporate responsibility global priorities: education, equity and environment. Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana, Cummins employs approximately 67,400 people worldwide and earned $2.8 billion on $33.7 billion in sales in 2025. Learn more at www.cummins.com.

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A North Carolina man was arrested after authorities say he exposed himself at a neighborhood school bus stop, where children and families were gathered, reported Fox 8.

Police arrested Angel Esteban Marte, 24, March 5 and charged with felony indecent exposure after the incident in Harnett County.

Deputies said Marte exposed his private parts at the bus stop, and investigators said the act was committed “for the purpose of arousing and gratifying the defendant’s sexual desire.”

Marte also faces a misdemeanor indecent exposure charge in connection with the incident.

The exact location of the bus stop was not specified. The offense is listed as a violent crime on a condition of release order.

According to the article, Marte was being held without bond at the Harnett County Jail. He was scheduled to make his first court appearance.

Related: School Bus Driver Arrested for Allegedly Asking Student to Hike Skirt
Related: North Carolina Registered Sex Offender Arrested After Trespassing on School Bus
Related: Florida Man Arrested After Boarding School Bus, Threatening Driver
Related: Florida Man Arrested for “Exposing” Himself to Kids on School Bus

The post North Carolina Man Accused of Indecent Exposure at School Bus Stop appeared first on School Transportation News.

Police arrested and charged a candidate for the Johnston County Board of Commissioners in connection with a hit-and-run crash involving a school bus in Four Oaks, North Carolina, reported WRAL News.

Chad Stewart allegedly failed to slow down and crashed into the back of a stopped school bus last Thursday. Authorities charged Stewart with failure to stop for a stopped school bus, hit-and-run resulting in property damage, and failure to reduce speed to avoid a collision. He was arrested Friday.

Seven students from Johnston County Early College and Johnston County Career and Technical Leadership Academy school bus passengers at the time of the crash. No injuries were reported.

Stewart is running for the District 3 seat on the Johnston County Board of Commissioners in the upcoming Republican primary. He previously served on the board from 2013 to 2021, including terms as chairman and vice chairman.

A judge issued Stewart a $20,000 bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 10.

Related: New York School Bus Driver Charged After Fatal Hit and Run
Related: North Carolina Registered Sex Offender Arrested After Trespassing on School Bus
Related: Washington School Bus Driver Fatally Injured During Crash
Related: North Carolina Student in Custody for Bringing Gun on School Bus

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Each year, School Transportation News gathers photos and videos from school districts and transportation companies across the U.S. that document how they celebrated Love the Bus Month. This year, we asked student transportation leaders about the impact of recognizing the importance of yellow school buses and showing appreciation to the individuals who transport students safely every day.

We uncovered a variety of Love the Bus celebrations ranging from highlighting student transportation staff on social media, catered events for transportation department, goodie bags for school bus drivers and special events with a Valentine’s Day flair.

Prosper Independent School District (Texas)

Teri Mapengo, director of transportation at Prosper Independent School District near Dallas, Texas, shared how multiple fun events showed the transportation department staff how much they are valued.

“We focus on meaningful and creative ways to celebrate our team and reinforce that they are truly seen and appreciated,” Mapengo explained. “This year, we hosted Puppy Wellness Days to bring moments of joy and stress relief, served pancakes and sausage after morning routes, partnered with Raising Cane’s ‘Love Bus’ to surprise staff with swag and gave bus beanies to every employee.”

The pictures were worth a thousand words, showing the happiness the furry visitors brought to the staff. Transfinder recognized Mapengo last summer at the STN EXPO West conference leading one of the industry’s Top Transportation Teams, so she has a long-standing history of creating meaningful connections with her team. She continued that the district’s Love the Bus celebrations continued with a superintendent ride-along that allowed for personal recognition and relationship building with the school bus drivers.

“Love the Bus Month matters because transportation is built on people, relationships and trust. Our teams show up before sunrise, in every kind of weather, carrying the responsibility of safely transporting what matters most—our students. Much of their work happens quietly behind the scenes, and this month gives us the opportunity to pause and recognize the heart behind the wheel,” she added. “Recognition reminds our drivers, monitors, mechanics, and support staff that their work has a lasting impact on students, families, and the entire school community,” said Mapengo. “While February gives us a dedicated time to celebrate, appreciation must be part of our culture year-round. When people feel valued, they feel connected to the mission—and that connection strengthens morale, safety, service, and retention.”

Mapengo summed up her advice to other directors. “Recognition doesn’t have to be expensive, it just has to be genuine. Celebrate your people publicly, involve your community and find ways to reflect your team’s unique culture” she recommended. ”Most importantly, make appreciation a habit, not just a moment. When transportation teams feel valued, it strengthens morale, builds pride and positively impacts the students and communities we serve.”

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Buncombe County School District (North Carolina)

Jeremy Stowe, director of transportation at Buncombe County Schools in North Carolina, spoke last year at STN EXPO East in Charlotte-Concord, North Carolina about how his transportation department stepped up to assist emergency services after Hurricane Helene. Stowe’s maintenance team was recognized as a 2025 Garage Star because of these efforts. This year, the students showed their appreciation by washing district school buses as a “tangible way to say thank you,” shared Stowe.

Stowe shared why Love the Bus Month matters. “Student transportation is often the first and last interaction a child has with our school system each day. Our drivers set the tone. They provide safety, stability and often encouragement before a student even walks into a classroom,” he commented. “Recognizing these drivers reinforces that their work is not just operational, it is relational and critical to our daily operations.”

He continued,“Year-long recognition is just as important. Drivers operate in all weather conditions, manage student behavior on a moving vehicle, and carry tremendous responsibility. When we intentionally celebrate them, we strengthen morale, keep drivers, and a positive tone to the culture of our entire district.”

Buncombe also highlights their transportation department’s work on social media regularly, especially noted Stowe, during weather events that require extra safety efforts from the staff. He also shared that members of the local Board of Education did ride-alongs on the school buses, “as another visible manner of recognizing all our drivers do for our district.”

Stowe said his advice to other school districts looking to thank and recognize their student transportation departments is to make recognition personal and visible., “Everyone wants to be told ‘Thank You’, you are important to what we do. Say it and show it. Invite everyone to participate (Principals, Teachers, Students, PTO’s, and Board Members). Post stories publicly. Deliver handwritten notes. Small gestures matter when they are sincere and consistent. Transportation professionals don’t do the work for recognition and they deserve all the recognition they can get.”

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Laramie County School District #1 (Wyoming)

Kathleen Larsen, a transportation supervisor at Laramie County School District #1 in Wyoming, shared a unique perspective on the importance of her transportation department as she is a parent of two students who ride her district’s school buses.

Jenn Simpson, another transportation supervisor at Laramie, reached out to School Transportation News with a submission that was shared by a school bus driver who works under Larsen. Simpson shared that Laramie County recognizes Love the Bus by engaging with the transportation department to ask why they “Love the Bus.” School bus driver Fabiola “Faby” Andujo was the first to respond.

She came to Laramie after obtaining her CDL through Climb Wyoming, a program that works with single mothers to provide job training, including certifications and assisting with job placement. Simpson said she is currently on medical leave and wanted to share her reasons why she loves her job.

Andujo showed her passion for her vital role. “I love my bus and I miss it because every student is a treasure to their family. We carry the most valuable cargo. Each student is a story whose ending we don’t know yet. Maybe they’ll become a new bus driver, a lawyer, a teacher, a police officer, a soldier, an engineer, an architect, a doctor, a nurse, a singer, an actor, a judge, a governor, a mayor, or even the next president in a few years,” she shared. “That’s why we drive carefully and make sure they arrive at their destination safely. Every smile in the morning, a good morning, a thank you is the best payment I can receive. I love my bus because it’s safe, and new stories are created every day. I want to tell you that I miss each and every one of you, and I feel very grateful for the opportunity to belong to this department.

“I am truly blessed. I’m doing my best in my recovery so I can return and continue taking the students to school and, in the afternoons, to their bus stops. I also miss taking field trips because I’ve gotten to see new places,” she continued “Thanks also to the mechanics who keep the buses running. I miss everyone, but especially my students and my teaching assistant. That’s why I love my bus because it’s safe, it’s big and it can take me to many places. Lots of love, Faby, I miss my bus 101.”

Larsen said that watching her children walk out the front door to ride the school bus each morning reinforces the impact of student transportation in children’s lives.

“To me, the school bus is the ultimate act of trust…That trust matters deeply to me, and it’s something I think about constantly. I try to lead this department with a parent’s heart, guided by the belief that every child on every route deserves the same care, patience, and warmth I want for my own girls,” explained Larsen.

“That’s exactly why celebrating Love the Bus Month matters,” she continued. “When we take time to recognize our drivers, TAs, mechanics, shop staff, dispatchers, coordinators, or trainers, we’re not just checking a box. We’re acknowledging the heart, effort and care they bring to this work. It’s a reminder that they aren’t just operating a vehicle — they are shaping experiences and building trust with kids every day. More than a thank you, this recognition helps our entire community better understand what this job truly involves. It reminds our staff that they aren’t working in isolation at the bus garage but are a vital part of the school family. When we celebrate the bus, we celebrate the peace of mind we give to parents and the safe, welcoming environment we create for students. Most of all, we honor the people who show up day after day — snow or shine — to make sure our kids get where they need to go and have the opportunity to learn and succeed.”

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Watauga County Schools (North Carolina)

Another school district in a more rural area of North Carolina made sure to recognize the dedication of their transportation team, as shared by Janet Tanner, the district’s transportation director.

“In Watauga County, our school bus drivers are more than employees — they are family. As a small rural mountain county in Western North Carolina, relationships matter deeply to us. Love the Bus month allows our school system and community to express gratitude for the individuals who safely transport our students each day,” she said.

Watauga County Schools’ Love the Bus celebrations included tokens of appreciation from the district and kind words from the community.

“Each year, we present our drivers with a token of appreciation. This year, every driver received a fleece jacket embroidered with our Watauga Bus emblem — a visible symbol of pride and unity. Our entire transportation department participated in personally delivering the jackets, which helps build relationships between drivers and staff. In addition, our Communications Director Bailey Little collected and shared heartfelt notes from parents and students across our social media platforms. These messages highlighted the kindness, dependability and care our drivers show daily.”

Just as the other directors noted, Tanner shared that Love the Bus celebrations don’t and should not be relegated to merely the month of February.

“Our commitment to appreciation extends well beyond the one month,” said Tanner. “Prior to the start of school, we host a back-to-school meeting, where drivers receive critical safety training, policy updates and procedural guidance. With the generous support from our vendors, we also provide lunch and door prizes, creating a welcoming and celebratory atmosphere. This event ensures drivers feel both prepared and valued,” she said

She continued, “Throughout the school year, have your department staff make visits to drivers before or after their routes, bring them small treats or simply tell them how much they are appreciated. These personal touches reinforce a culture of recognition and respect.”

She also noted that the district regularly posts “Driver Spotlights” on social media to connect the drivers behind the wheel with the local community saying that these outreaches “foster pride among drivers and strengthen the connection between families and the transportation team.

“In Watauga County, appreciation is not a single event—it is a culture,” she added. “We are committed to honoring them not just during Love the Bus month, but throughout the entire year.”

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Related: Gallery: Recap Love the Bus Month 2026
Related: WATCH: West Virginia Highlights School Bus Inspection for Love the Bus Month
Related: Update: Love the Bus Month Underway, NAPT Seeks Recognition Year-Round

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An unusually persistent cold front sweeping snow and freezing rain across the U.S. last month exposed a key vulnerability in school transportation systems across the South and Mid-Atlantic regions, where prolonged bouts with such severe winter weather is rare.

School districts unaccustomed to sustained winter weather were forced to suspend or significantly alter school bus operations, triggering widespread school closures, delays and logistical strain.

In Virginia, where snowfall is typically modest and short-lived, school districts across northern and central parts of the state struggled to safely operate school buses after repeated rounds of snow, freezing rain and overnight refreezing.

Fairfax County Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, canceled or delayed classes for multiple days, citing icy secondary roads and blocked school bus stops. Albemarle County Public Schools reported similar challenges, noting that while major roadways were largely cleared, neighborhood streets remained hazardous for large school buses navigating early-morning routes.

In neighboring North Carolina, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) also faced transportation disruptions as icy conditions lingered on secondary roads. District officials said decisions to close, delay, or shift to remote learning are guided by a broad, safety-first assessment that extends well beyond road conditions alone.

“CMS considers multiple factors, including primary and secondary road conditions, local and state plowing schedules, staff commute safety, student drivers and walkers, accessibility needs, and the readiness of more than 200 facilities that must be safely cleared of snow and ice,” said Tom Miner, assistant communications officer for the district.

Miner told STN that Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools and administrative sites are not maintained by city or county crews. While local agencies focus on public roadways, district operations teams are responsible for clearing school parking lots, entrances, walkways, and bus lots to ensure safe conditions on campuses.

Because Charlotte-Mecklenburg serves a geographically large and diverse community, Miner said decisions prioritize countywide student and staff safety. When school is in session, district operations significantly increase traffic on local roads through buses, staff vehicles, families and student drivers, a factor weighed carefully during weather-related decision-making. District leaders also rely on guidance from weather experts and emergency management officials as recovery efforts unfold across the county.

The impact of the cold front was also pronounced in Tennessee, where severe winter weather remains relatively infrequent outside of mountainous areas. In east and middle Tennessee, a rare combination of freezing temperatures, snow and icy road conditions prompted widespread school closures as bus fleets were sidelined. Metro Nashville Public Schools canceled classes after determining that residential roads and rural routes were unsafe for bus travel.

Rocky (and Icy) Top

In Knox County, back-to-back winter storms over the past two weeks forced multiple canceled instructional days and delayed schedules. Ryan Dillingham, executive director of transportation for Knox County Schools, said even modest winter weather can have outsized effects in the region.

“We’re in an area that typically does not see heavy winter weather, so a relatively small amount that wouldn’t even be worth considering in other parts of the country can impact us heavily,” Dillingham told STN.

Dillingham said the district relies on a network of contracted bus operators positioned throughout Knox County to assess road conditions during weather events, combining those reports with forecast data and information from law enforcement, first responders and school safety and maintenance teams to guide decision-making.

“One of the unexpected impacts of these storms has been to drain our supplies of salt and de-icing compounds,” he explained. “We’re almost out locally, and suppliers are facing delays getting resupplies. That has led the county to prioritize major thoroughfares over neighborhood roads, which is logical and appropriate, but we have a lot of stops on neighborhood roads, so we feel that impact.”

Transportation officials across the region emphasized that many school bus fleets in southern states are not equipped with snow tires or chains, equipment typically unnecessary given their usual climates. Even brief overnight refreezing made routes unpredictable, forcing districts to prioritize safety over maintaining regular schedules.

Educators expressed frustration with the disruptions but largely supported school district decisions, acknowledging that transportation systems designed primarily for extreme heat and heavy rain are ill-suited for winter storms. The disruptions also renewed discussions about preparedness, with some districts exploring expanded use of remote learning days or adjustments to academic calendars to account for weather-related instructional losses. While forecasters expect temperatures to gradually moderate, school leaders say the cold front has already left a lasting impression.

Related: (STN Podcast E289) 2026 Kicks Off: Winter Weather, the World Stage & Rock ‘n Roll Leadership
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Related: When was the last time your operation trained with local first responders on emergency scenarios?

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A registered sex offender was arrested after allegedly trespassing a Brunswick County Schools bus, according to court documents, reported WECT.com

John Phillip Colombo, 45, of Winnabow, is facing a felony charge of unlawfully being on child premises as a registered sex offender, along with a misdemeanor charge of trespassing to impede school bus operations.

According to the news report, Colombo unlawfully entered a Bolivia Elementary School bus Jan. 16, while students were on board. Court documents reportedly state that Colombo is required to register as a sex offender due to a prior conviction in another state for an offense substantially similar to indecency with a child involving sexual contact.

In a statement to local news reporters, Brunswick County Schools said the incident occurred on a morning bus route when Colombo briefly boarded the bus and spoke with the driver regarding a seating concern involving his child. The district said he entered the interior of the bus and exited shortly afterward.

School officials said the bus driver followed established transportation safety protocols by activating the onboard alert and recording system, which documented the incident and immediately notified appropriate personnel. Students were on board at the time, and district officials said student safety was not compromised.

A student later alerted school administration upon arrival at school, allowing administrators to follow established procedures. The alert system also notified the School Resource Officer, who is coordinating with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office as part of an ongoing investigation.

“All applicable safety procedures were followed appropriately and functioned as designed,” the district told reporters, adding that staff and students are regularly trained on safety protocols to ensure incidents are reported and addressed quickly.

Due to the active nature of the investigation, Brunswick County Schools said it cannot provide additional details at this time and emphasized that the safety and well-being of students and staff remains its highest priority.

The felony charge stems from Colombo’s alleged presence on school premises while being a registered sex offender. The misdemeanor charge alleges that he impeded the operation of a public school bus by walking onto the vehicle while it was transporting students.

Colombo was scheduled to appear in Brunswick County District Court on Jan. 20.

Related: Florida School Bus Aide Arrested on Child Abuse Charge
Related: Man Arrested for Throwing Rock at School Bus, Fracturing 8-Year-Old Girl’s Skull
Related: Man Arrested After Allegedly Stealing a School Bus in New Mexico
Related: New York Man Arrested for Speeding Past a Stopped School Bus

The post North Carolina Registered Sex Offender Arrested After Trespassing on School Bus appeared first on School Transportation News.

Jane Thornton tried and failed to stop the wood pellet plant from being built within earshot of her home in Faison, a tiny farming town in eastern North Carolina where she’s lived for over 60 years.

Now, some eight years later, she and her neighbors have a smaller but critical aim: getting the facility to better control its dust and the nuisance it creates.  

Silver-haired and soft-spoken, Thornton is quick to wax philosophical about the forces that have fueled the pellet industry’s rise, largely driven by a decades-old carbon accounting loophole that countries use to allege climate progress. The unintended consequences are concentrated in the U.S. Southeast, which has emerged as a hub for the industry.  

“It’s not green,” she said, referring to industry claims of sustainability. “Because when you cut the trees down, you lose the effect of them taking the bad stuff [out of the air]. And then we send them to Europe and use a lot of diesel fuel, which is not good. And they burn it and pollute their air. So how do they think it’s green?” 

A host of advocates, scientists, and data backs up Thornton. Producing pellets, shipping them to Europe and Asia, and burning them in power plants all creates carbon pollution greater than that of burning coal. Too often, pellets are made from whole, hardwood trees that were absorbing carbon dioxide while they were alive. Their replacements, often pines, can’t regrow in time to make up for it. 

As global climate negotiators debate the fuel’s carbon cycle, today Thornton and others in Faison are focused on dust. Indeed, neighbors of five wood pellet mills in the Southeast, including two operated by Enviva Biomass in North Carolina, list dust as their top concern, according to research conducted by the Southern Environmental Law Center and several other groups.  

“That is the number one thing I have heard from almost every community I’ve talked to about pellet mills. It’s incessant dust,” said Heather Hillaker, senior attorney at the law center.  

“We’re up against limited regulatory opportunities,” she acknowledged. But the state could force Enviva to tamp down the problem. “This is one area where there is a regulation that applies to an issue that is very prevalent for the community.” 

At her home last month, Thornton described watching suppliers roll past on their way to Enviva’s factory. 

“I’ve seen more log trucks come by today,” Thornton said. “They clear-cut everything. You get the oaks and the maples and the sycamores and whatever else is out there, and then you come back and plant pines. So, we’re going to have pine forests — or pine plantations.”  

She added, “They’re not forests, because a forest is whatever the Lord puts out there.” 

Public health impacts 

The practice of burning pellets for power isn’t economical without massive government supports, which don’t exist in North Carolina or elsewhere in the U.S. What’s more, the Biden administration’s new rules for the Clean Electricity Tax Credit make it extremely unlikely that wood pellets could qualify. 

Still, many countries count burning wood pellets as a positive on their climate ledgers, and the United Kingdom heavily subsidizes the fuel source. While those incentives are set to expire in 2027, the industry is campaigning heavily to get them renewed. 

Often overlooked in the climate accounting debate is the experience of the disproportionately low-income communities of color in the Southeast, where pellet mills are invariably located. From the get-go, neighbors have sought to alleviate dust and noise from the mills. 

Enviva’s first facility in North Carolina, in Ahoskie in Hertford County, began operating in 2011, and regulators required the company to control its dust soon thereafter. 

“That pellet mill is a right smack dab in the middle of town,” said Hillaker. “So, it makes sense that they would have had some pretty significant dust issues immediately.” 

Success in other communities has been more elusive. 

A former professor at the University of Mt. Olive, Dr. Ruby Bell is an organizer with the nonprofit Dogwood Alliance in Faison. She lives far enough from the Sampson County mill that she doesn’t notice many impacts at her own home. Not so when she’s closer to the facility. 

“When I first started this position,” Bell said, “I decided to go visit the people who live across the way. I sat outside for 20 minutes… When I left, I was sniffing. My nose was running. I had mucus beginning to form in my throat.” 

Tiny air particulates invisible to the human eye are thought to be the most insidious to human health because they can burrow deep into the lungs and bloodstream. But large dust particles can cause the issues Bell described, because they tend to get trapped in the upper respiratory tract. 

They can also exacerbate symptoms in people with pre-existing respiratory conditions. More than 100 households in the 300-person survey by Dogwood, Southern Environmental Law Center, and others, reported having asthma. Over half said they simply avoided outdoor activities like grilling and gardening to avoid the dust. 

That’s part of why organizers want state regulators to require dust management plans at Enviva’s mills in Northampton, Richmond, and Sampson counties – not just the one in Ahoskie.  

‘Better than nothing’ 

To be sure, the plan wouldn’t address every concern with the Faison facility. Neighbors complain about the noise from the mill’s 24-7 operations. They also blanch at the constant truck traffic, from the delivery of downed trees to the mill to the transport of the finished pellets some 80 miles south to the Port of Wilmington. 

“This road out here was built as one of those farm-to-market roads,” Thornton said during the visit at her home, surrounded by farmland. “It wasn’t built for trucks, and they’ve torn it up I don’t know how many times.” 

Activists are pressing Enviva to address all of their complaints voluntarily, saying that in addition to controlling its dust, the company should adopt best practices for incoming and outgoing trucks and cease operations between 10 at night and seven in the morning.  

Yet even without these extra steps, the dust plan would make a measurable difference, community members believe. The Ahoskie plan, for instance, requires Enviva to apply water to “minimize fugitive dust emissions from any ground surfaces” when dust is observed or conditions are dry, among other measures. It also calls for grass berms, which could mitigate noise. 

“The plan is better than nothing,” said Hillaker. “There’s better ability for [the state] to act if the plan itself is violated.” 

But convincing North Carolina regulators to mandate the dust plans has been a slog. State rules say a plan is required if regulators can verify two dust complaints in a 12-month period. But that substantiation is far from simple. 

“Trained Division of Air Quality inspectors visit the site and determine whether off-site dust is present,” Shawn Taylor, a division spokesperson, said over email. “If so, they attempt to determine the source of the dust by physically inspecting the dust, reviewing weather and wind data, reviewing operating schedules and air quality records of nearby facilities, and using other methods.” 

Dating back two years, Bell has submitted grievances on behalf of neighbors in Faison that have yet to be confirmed. And while scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill installed and collected air quality monitors at Thornton’s home and that of others, their research is ongoing and separate from the state’s process for verifying dust complaints.  

“Fugitive wood dust usually consists of larger particles that are less likely to be detectable with these monitors, so physical inspection is used,” Taylor said. “Even if monitors detect dust, they cannot determine the source of the dust, so our investigation would need to rely on additional data to make this determination.” 

Still, after years of little to no headway, organizers finally saw some progress last year. Regulators verified two complaints at the Enviva facility at the Port of Wilmington and will now require the company to enact a dust management plan.  

“The details of that plan are still being developed by DAQ and Enviva,” Taylor said, “and will be implemented later this year.” 

The success at the port has given a jolt of hope to organizers and pellet mill neighbors who feel they aren’t being heard.  

“It’s hard to get them moving sometimes,” Bell said. With some justification, many in the community believe “it doesn’t matter what we say,” she said.

In Thornton’s eyes, the battle against wood pellets is all too typical of the way the country approaches environmental regulation. 

“We’re not proactive to make sure what we’re doing is right,” she said. “We say ‘oh, this is new, this is good, we’re going to do a whole bunch of it,’ and after we get done, somebody comes along and says I don’t believe we should have done that.”

She added, “that’s true with a lot of things we’ve done in this country. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you ought to.”

As world grapples with wood pellets’ climate impacts, North Carolina communities contend with dust and noise is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

When a solar energy developer approached Halifax County, North Carolina, in the early 2010s about renting its former airfield in Roanoke Rapids, community leaders had a condition. 

“If they were willing to lease this land for the very first solar project in the area, the county needed to get something back in return,” said Mozine Lowe from her office, which overlooks the 20 megawatt solar farm now atop the old airport. “What they got was this building.”

Of course, it’s more than a building. It’s the headquarters for the Center for Energy Education, the nonprofit Lowe has run since 2016 that works to maximize the benefits of large solar farms in rural America — one community, one school child, and one worker at a time. 

Lowe, who grew up about five miles from where she now works, had graduated from Greensboro’s North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University but worked across the country, from California to Washington, D.C. 

When she returned to this rural county of less than 50,000 near the Virginia border, formerly a hub of farming and textiles, she said she didn’t see a lot of change.  

“The jobs were the same,” she said. “I didn’t see people making the connection between solar energy and what’s happening with the climate and the impact on rural communities, and I just wanted to try and help from that angle.” 

The Center conducts educational programs for children of all ages, who come in by the busload from surrounding schools both public and private. It holds a Solar Fest every year to celebrate clean energy with community leaders, drawing hundreds.

Through collaborations with local educational institutions like community colleges, the center has also helped to train a new workforce in jobs that pay roughly twice what workers are earning at the fast-food chains off Interstate 95. 

“We have trained more people than most other people around here to become solar installers,” Lowe said. “We want them to be first in line for our jobs.”

And there’s outreach to solar companies themselves in North Carolina as well as Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, where the Center also has offices. The goal is to help them become better community partners.

Only a few ‘good players’ 

Geenex, the Charlotte-based developer who built the solar farm at the airport and over a dozen others in the vicinity, is still involved in the Center, and the company’s chairman also chairs the nonprofit’s board.  

But Lowe and other staff at the organization say not every solar developer is committed — at least at first — to working with community leaders in Eastern North Carolina. 

“Geenex is a very good partner,” said Reginald Bynum, the Center’s community outreach manager. “They’re a good player. But there are only a few of them. Other companies will say, ‘This is your ordinance? Great. This is all I have to do.’” 

Some county ordinances, like that in Halifax, need to be updated, Bynum said. Many still call for a 75-foot buffer between the rows of solar panels and neighboring properties. That figure is “so 2018,” said Bynum. It should be doubled, he said. 

Most solar farms are also built on private land — often bits of farmland that can help cotton growers and other farmers guarantee income. But developers usually obtain the leases first, before airing the project in public. 

“That’s the backwards process of solar,” Bynum said. “They’re talking to landowners and securing that land, and then they’re coming to commissioners.” 

What’s more, simply following ordinances isn’t enough, Bynum says. What’s needed is for solar developers to work with local residents to develop community benefits agreements — documents that memorialize pluses to the area, from minimizing construction impacts to providing jobs. 

“It’s a 30-year commitment to the community,” he said, “because your farm’s going to be here 30 years. They’re asking for that, and they deserve that.” 

Critically, say Bynum and other advocates, solar developers need to work with community leaders to provide benefits beyond tax revenue — an undeniable good, but one that isn’t “seen” by anyone except county bookkeepers.

And though a recent study from the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association shows that solar farms today take up a fraction of a percent of the state’s farmland, the figure is a full 1% in Halifax County, and on pace to triple in the coming years, according to the Center’s research. 

“From rural citizens’ standpoint, that’s a lot,” Bynum said. “You have to really understand what they’re seeing.” 

‘Projects have gotten bigger’

Part of what they’re seeing is the result of a simple fact: solar farms aren’t just growing more abundant in parts of rural America. They’re also much larger.

In North Carolina up until 2016, the average utility-scale solar development was 5.8 megawatts covering 35 acres of land, per the Sustainable Energy Association. After a 2017 state law made larger solar farms easier to build, the average system size increased to 13.6 megawatts and covered 115 acres of land.

“Projects have gotten bigger,” said Carson Harkrader, the CEO of Durham-based Carolina Solar Energy, who appeared on a recent clean energy panel with Bynum. “As they’ve gotten bigger, people freak out a little bit.” 

And while many folks’ worries about the visual impact of solar panels can be mollified — with tree buffers, setbacks, and information about the safety of the structures — some are easy targets for opponents. 

“The opposition has become much, much, more organized. There are national groups, funded by the oil and gas industry,” Harkrader said. “With this opposition that is more organized and has more resources, it’s much harder.” 

In some cases, opponents may fill a vacuum left by solar companies who lined up projects before the pandemic and have only recently begun to start construction. 

That’s what happens, said Bynum, “when you miss steps in keeping citizens updated with the project — particularly when you started talking about it five years before. Commissioners change, a lot of tribal knowledge evaporates.” 

More success stories?

And sometimes, it only takes one or two community members to force the issue with local politicians. Both neighboring Northampton and Halifax counties have passed moratoriums on new solar farms recently. Halifax acted after just a few people appeared at their meeting, concerned about the loss of trees.

Having talked with county commissioners, staff at the Center are hopeful the moratorium will end quickly as planned, after the county has updated its ordinance. But the “pause” on solar farms is an example of the constant game of whack-a-mole solar developers and their advocates must play.

Lowe says that’s why the Center is so vital. 

“What makes us unique is that our work is mainly community engagement,” she said. “Our stance is to be neutral, and to provide factual information. I think we need to tell more success stories.”

How one nonprofit is working to build support for solar — and added benefits for communities — in rural North Carolina is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

This article was originally published by Floodlight.

A small town in North Carolina has taken a bold step, filing the first climate “deception” lawsuit against an electric utility in the United States.

In a civil lawsuit, the Town Council of Carrboro accuses Duke Energy, one of the largest power companies in the United States, of orchestrating a decades-long campaign of denialism and cover up over the dangers of fossil fuel emissions. The lawsuit claims Duke’s actions stalled the transition to clean energy and exacerbated the climate crisis.

Over the past decade, similar suits have been filed by states and communities against large oil companies and — in at least one instance — a gas utility. But Carrboro, N.C., is the first municipality to ever file such a suit against an electric utility.

“We’re a very bold group,” Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee told Floodlight. “And we know how urgent this climate crisis is.”

Duke Energy said in a statement, “We are in the process of reviewing the complaint. Duke Energy is committed to its customers and communities and will continue working with policymakers and regulators to deliver reliable and increasingly clean energy while keeping rates as low as possible.”

The suit, filed in Orange County, North Carolina, accuses Duke Energy of intentionally spreading false information about the negative effects of fossil fuels for decades, despite knowing since the late 1960s about planet-warming properties of carbon dioxide emissions. It claims the power company funded trade organizations and climate skeptic scientists who created doubts about the greenhouse effect and obstructed policy and public action on climate change.

“Duke misled the public concerning the causes and consequences of climate change and thereby materially slowed the transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. Duke’s deception campaign served to protect its fossil fuel-based business model.” the lawsuit reads.

It accuses the power company, which in 2019 was the third largest emitter of C02 in the United States, of falsely marketing itself as a leader in clean energy while continuing to rely heavily on fossil fuels. 

Between 2005 and 2023, the company reported reducing its CO2 emissions from electricity generation by 44%. But in 2023, at least 45% of the electricity Duke produced was still generated by burning coal or methane gas. 

“(Duke) was one of the ringleaders behind deceiving the public and municipalities and governments about the causes and consequences of manmade climate change,” said Raleigh attorney Matthew Quinn, who is representing the town.

Carrboro is a town of about 20,000 with an annual budget of $81 million, Foushee said. Quinn, the attorney, estimates the town will incur some $60 million in costs in adapting to climate change impacts, including repairs to roads, upgrades to stormwater systems and increased heating and cooling costs.

At a press conference Wednesday, Quinn explained that expert analysts had arrived at that number based on the amount and cost of climate adaptation that Carrboro would have undertaken had it not been for Duke’s alleged deception.

“There’s a major gulf between where we should be at and where we are right now,” Quinn said at the press conference.

“Really, what this case is about is that Carrboro has been a victim of the climate deception campaign by Duke Energy, (and) as a result of Duke’s conduct, Carrboro has suffered a lot of damages and injustice,” Quinn said in an interview.

Added Danny Nowell, Carrboro Mayor pro tem: “We have paid for it. We have paid for excess road repairs. We have faced the effects of stormwater, and we will continue to pay for other expenses as we uncover them. It’s time for Carrboro to be repaid.”

Quinn’s fees are being paid by NC Warn, a climate nonprofit, Foushee said.

“People that run local governments and others and people that run corporations, they all better get heavily serious about the climate crisis,” said Jim Warren, executive director of NC Warn. “It’s already harming so many across this state.”

Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University, called such lawsuits “cute.” 

“And I use that term very, you know, intentionally. These lawsuits are cute in the sense that they’re trying to shame companies … into doing better,” said Jarvis, adding that they are rarely successful. “Companies have duties to their shareholders to maximize profits. And so what these lawsuits are really saying is that companies should be punished for maximizing profit.”

“It’s interesting with this as a case directly against a utility,” said Korey Silverman-Roati, a senior fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. “It’s a shift in perspective from companies just producing fossil fuels to those burning it.”

Although this is the first climate deception lawsuit ever filed against an electric utility, it is not the first time that electric utilities have found themselves in legal trouble for the climate warming pollution their power plants spew as they burn fossil fuels to generate electricity. 

In 2004, electric companies faced federal litigation brought by eight U.S. states, New York City and several land trusts seeking to cap the companies’ CO2 emissions. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled against the plaintiffs. 

Floodlight is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.

North Carolina town sues Duke Energy for climate ‘deception’ is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Charlotte, North Carolina, may soon get access to a new tool to deploy in its push toward 100% clean power: data.

The Tar Heel state’s largest city aims to power all government operations with carbon-free electricity by the end of the decade, including the city-owned Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, one of the busiest in the world. 

But the hub is a big question mark for the city’s climate target. Officials don’t actually know how much energy it uses — or how much renewable energy they need to offset it — because the utility bills for the five-terminal airport are paid by dozens of individual customers, from Cinnabon to Jamba Juice to airline club lounges.

Now, after a decade of urging by Charlotte and others, Duke Energy has a proposal to change that: an eight-page plan for improved data access that has sign-off from the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association; Public Staff, the state-sanctioned customer advocate; and Dominion Energy, which serves the northeast corner of the state.

Filed last month with regulators for approval, Duke’s proposed rules could have wide application, said Ethan Blumenthal, regulatory counsel for the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association. 

“For municipalities applying for federal grants, large customers pursuing energy efficiency, and homeowners and solar companies that are trying to right-size solar installations,” Blumenthal said, “this access to data is essential.”

Avoiding a ‘laborious process’

The Charlotte airport is a prime example of one hurdle facing local communities with climate goals. Today, getting total energy usage data for government-owned buildings with multiple meters means reaching out to individual tenants to get permission to access their accounts.  

“It would be a very laborious process to do that at the airport and anywhere else we have tenants,” said Aaron Tauber, Charlotte’s sustainability analyst.

The problem extends to private building owners who aim to reduce their carbon footprints or improve efficiency but don’t have insight into their renters’ energy consumption. Honeywell, for instance, is a partner in the city’s “Power Down the Crown” initiative, whereby building managers look to reduce energy use by optimizing efficiency. 

“They don’t own all of the data,” Tauber said. “They have tenants in their properties. So, they don’t have visibility to the entire building’s energy use.” 

The new rule will allow a large user, from Honeywell to Charlotte, to access aggregated data for a large building with multiple tenants by request to Duke, so long as at least 15 individual accounts are involved, and none consumes more than 15% of the building’s energy use. 

“Being a larger city, we do have a lot of large buildings with multiple tenants,” said Tauber. “I’m just really excited for these building owners to really — for the first time — gain an understanding of how their buildings are using energy.”

That understanding, he said, is critical for commercial properties to access a new law that allows them to borrow public money for energy efficiency upgrades and pay it back on their property tax bills.  

“Being able to unlock a financing mechanism based on this data will really go a long way for the city to be able to meet our strategic energy action goal of being a low-carbon community,” said Tauber.

Not just for big buildings

The data access rule also applies to a census block, zip code, or other area with at least 15 accounts, which will help local governments meet community-wide climate goals. 

“You can use the aggregated data to make good decisions for program design, and where you might want to target,” said Ann Livingston, senior executive and director of programs with the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network. “You can assess: is this particular block or neighborhood really using a lot more energy per house per square foot than others?” 

Durham County, for instance, together with neighboring Granville and Orange counties, has a $1.5 million federal grant to help low-income homeowners cut their energy use through weatherization and other upgrades.  

“We want to focus in areas where there’s a higher energy use or higher energy burden,” said Tobin Freid, the county’s sustainability manager. “We’d like information at a more granular level than just the county.”

If the new Duke rule is approved, it will also help county officials better tailor the program to individual households and assess its impacts. The proposal would ease the approval process for allowing third-party access to data and ensure that at least two years of prior energy use is included.

“For every home that we work on, we would need historic data to see: what was your energy use before?” Freid said.

Both the aggregated data and third-party access provisions will also be critical for federal programs like Solar for All, aimed at deploying rooftop solar on low-income households. 

“Often, those federal funding opportunities require you to assess and report on energy impact,” said Livingston. “Solar for All will be a very clear example of this, where you need to report energy savings for individual participants.”

Growing interest in local impact

Apart from the sustainability goals, government officials also have a commitment to manage public dollars efficiently, Livingston noted. That’s especially pertinent for large energy users like Durham County, who may pay a higher “demand charge” for a single 30-minute spike in energy use. Large customers with net-metered solar power also pay more during times of peak demand. 

The proposed rules will help solve these challenges by allowing third parties access to machine-readable, easily analyzed data for customers of all sizes. The format would essentially meet national “Green Button” standards, one familiar to the many companies around the country dedicated to managing building energy performance.

The Green Button initiative, a project of the U.S. Department of Energy that originated in Canada, has been around for over a decade – about as long as the Sustainable Energy Association has been advocating for improved customer data access, along with counties like Durham.

But the issue seems to have gained new steam in recent months, as local governments look to take advantage of new federal grants and laws aimed at reducing climate pollution.

What’s more, Blumenthal said, Duke has pledged to implement the rules within 18 months of their approval and help expedite any data requests in the interim.

“There is a commitment to doing everything they can, essentially, to provide data for federal funding purposes up until [the proposal] is fully implemented,” Blumenthal said. “A commitment to try to bridge the gap.”

Asked what prompted the agreement with Blumenthal’s group and others after all this time, Duke spokesperson Logan Stewart said over email: 

“A lot has changed in the last decade from a technology, cybersecurity, and customer engagement perspective that made this stipulation possible. Duke Energy is always looking for ways to collaborate with stakeholders to achieve outcomes that benefit customers.”

Duke Energy data access rules poised to help North Carolina communities meet climate goals is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Mark Fleming has a prediction for those terrified about the impact of a second Trump administration on the clean energy transition: “It’s going to work out better than folks think.”

Fleming is head of Conservatives for Clean Energy, a Raleigh-based nonprofit that brings together lobbyists, consultants, and politicians on the right who support clean energy. The group formed a decade ago, not long before Trump’s first term began, and is now active in six Southeast states. On Tuesday, together with the Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy, it held its biennial luncheon in downtown Raleigh. 

Coming just two weeks after an election most advocates see as a major setback for federal clean energy policy, the Raleigh event was not unlike past affairs, with congenial vibes, a half dozen awards to politicians and businesses, and presentation from leading Republican consultants assessing the political salience of clean energy.

“It was an election about the economy and immigration,” explained Paul Shumaker, one such pollster and a fixture at these gatherings. “Clean energy is never going to be the issue.”

Trump and his hostile, mostly fact-free rants on the campaign trail about wind energy and the climate crisis got little mention during the formal presentations. Side conversations showed conservatives seemed relatively unconcerned about the future president’s tirades and threats.

“Governing is different than campaigning,” Fleming said. 

He and others believe much of Trump’s rhetoric was tossed as red meat to his base of supporters and won’t get meaningful follow-through. On technologies such as offshore wind — which the incoming president frequently lambasts — perhaps the administration and even the man himself can be convinced of its economic benefits, attendees suggested. 

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who supports offshore wind in the commonwealth, “will be at the top of the list of conservative policy makers in terms of encouraging the Trump administration to look at the positives on offshore wind,” Fleming said. “It makes long term economic sense, but there’s going to be some education there.”

Indeed, to help his re-election chances, Trump did flip his stance on offshore drilling four years ago — at least for the Southern Atlantic — after input from Republicans in Southeast states who oppose the practice.

Despite Trump’s vague promise to curtail the Inflation Reduction Act, Fleming believes congressional Republicans will preserve most of Biden’s signature climate law because of its benefits in rural areas.

Nine new projects announced in North Carolina the year after the measure’s passage, from lithium processing to vehicle-charging equipment plants, will spur tens of thousands of jobs and add $10 billion to the state’s GDP, the clean economy group E2 found.

Such data should be fodder for members of Congress like Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina’s senior U.S. senator and a Republican, to fight to keep most of the Inflation Reduction Act’s provisions.

“He has been such a thoughtful leader on energy issues,” Fleming said of Tillis. “He’s going to be a key decision maker in the U.S. Senate on these clean energy issues moving forward.” 

‘We won’t agree on everything’ 

Jason Saine, a Lincoln County Republican who served more than a dozen years in the North Carolina House and now works as a lobbyist, was among the luncheon’s awardees. He says Trump’s rhetoric is just part of politics. 

“Good science and good facts will rule the day, but in the meantime, we’ll suffer through a lot of rhetoric,” he said.

Like some of his conservative colleagues who focus on federal policy, Fleming hopes the closely divided Congress will have new reason to enact reforms to the permitting process that will speed approval of clean energy as well as fossil fuel projects.

And though he’s confident that much of the Inflation Reduction Act will survive, Fleming believes Congress will trim it — a “scalpel rather than a sledgehammer” approach. 

Saine agrees. “It can always be recreated in a different format and voted on again,” he said. “What’s dead today is never dead tomorrow.”

One item in the climate law that’s ripe for repeal is the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles, Fleming said. That incentive is spurring plenty of economic development in rural areas in the form of EV and battery factories, but it’s perceived as benefiting only urban folk. 

“The administration will want wins,” Fleming insisted. “We won’t agree on everything. But I think we’ll have opportunities to work together to move the economy forward and move the clean energy cause forward in D.C.”

No matter what, most of the luncheon attendees remained focused on incremental reforms in North Carolina — where the power dynamics are largely unchanged after Nov. 5. Trump won the state, but Democrat Josh Stein trounced a scandal-plagued Republican to win the governor’s race. The GOP continues to control a heavily gerrymandered legislature and is just one vote shy of a veto-proof majority in the House. 

Still, as “Trump II” approaches, Fleming acknowledged Conservatives for Clean Energy has an important role to play.

“It’s going to be better than folks think,” he repeated. “But the onus will be on all of us to make it happen. Now, groups like ours are more needed than ever. That thought leadership on these issues will be on the right. It’s not going to be from our friends on the left.”

In North Carolina, conservative clean energy supporters don’t think Trump will follow through on threats is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

When regulators allowed Duke Energy to lower bill credits to homes with rooftop solar, critics warned the solar industry would suffer a major loss. 

A year after the new rates took effect, available data show those detractors had a point, with new household solar connections in Duke territory on pace to drop about 40% compared to 2023. 

Yet the reason for the dip is multifaceted — ranging from steep interest rates to the loss of a popular rebate program — and seems to have had little impact on longtime installers in the state.

Indeed, many say they’re optimistic about the future of home solar, partly because of new Duke incentives for home batteries that are already having an impact. Their push now is to extend and expand them.  

“We believe this is a strong way forward to support our utility grid and the ability of homeowners to produce and use their own energy,” said Brandon Pendry, communications specialist at Southern Energy Management, an installer based in Raleigh. 

A complex truce on net metering

Most homes that go solar stay connected to the utility grid, drawing electricity at night and providing surplus power on sunny days. The question is what bargain these solar owners strike with their utility for this give and take, known as net metering.  

The arrangement for Duke’s North Carolina customers was long straightforward: they bought the electrons they needed at the retail rate and sold excess ones back at the same rate. Like all customers, they faced a minimum bill charge for the company’s fixed grid costs, such as poles and wires.

But this approach has downsides for a for-profit utility like Duke, whose business model depends on buying or producing electrons at one cost and selling them for a higher one. Like many utilities around the country, Duke had sought for years to impose more costs on solar customers and credit them less for their contributions to the grid. 

A major campaign contributor in the state legislature with an army of lobbyists, Duke helped write and pass two laws, one in 2017 and another in 2021, requiring an end to retail net metering by 2027. 

Seeking to avoid the bruising battles over net metering seen in California and other states, some North Carolina solar installers and clean energy advocacy nonprofits sought – and achieved – compromise with Duke instead. 

Under the deal, new solar customers can choose a “time of use” rate, in which they’re rewarded more for electrons they add to the grid, and charged more for those they subtract, during times of heavy demand. Alternatively, until the start of 2027, customers can select a “bridge rate,” in which they get a one-to-one exchange for electrons taken from and given to the grid. 

While sophisticated customers might conceivably squeeze out substantial benefits of solar with the time-of-use rates, installers pushed the bridge rate for its simplicity and certainty, which they deem nearly as good as the old net metering rate.

“All in all, I think residential solar installers are feeling excited about where the industry is going right now,” said Matt Abele, the executive director of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association.

Industry cross currents 

But the dip in sales since the complex truce took effect is undeniable. Abele’s group tracked a huge spike in solar projects registered with state regulators in September 2023, just before the new net metering rates were implemented, followed by a steep drop off that bottomed out last December.  

Different metrics supplied by Duke — solar connections rather than registrations — show new solar rooftop customers on pace to number about 5,300 in 2024, compared to about 9,100 in 2023 and 10,200 in 2022. The number also falls well short of Duke’s own predictions for new residential solar customers for this year of 11,400. 

Yet the installers contacted for this article were largely unfazed. Reached before the devastation of Hurricane Helene, Clary Franko, chief operating officer at Asheville’s Sugar Hollow Solar, predicted sales this year would be lower than last, but not by a huge amount. “Hooray for the bridge rate!” she said. 

Executives at Yes Solar Solutions, based in Cary, agreed. “In residential, the net metering bridge rate has kind of kept things intact,” said Stew Miller, president of the company. “I think everybody's doing as well as to be expected.” 

And Pendry at Southern Energy Management said his company had more potential customers this year than the year before.  

“Looking back at our previous 12-month period, we saw high interest from homeowners who wanted to lock into the legacy net metering program,” he said. “Moving into this last 12-month period, we have seen slightly more interest in solar overall.” 

The disconnect between these companies’ optimism and the decline in sales may reflect that fewer installers are doing business now in North Carolina, with 40 companies registering new systems in the state in August versus 57 last September, according to the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association. 

Indeed, established rooftop solar companies say part of their business model now includes cleaning up after so-called bad actors, who installed panels incorrectly or incompletely during the heady days of the early 2020’s.

“There were so many systems that were put in in our area that we’re having to redo,” said Dave Hollister, president of Asheville-based Sundance Solar Systems. “It's been a significant problem in our community.”

Still, a spokesperson for EnergySage, a marketplace that helps connect vetted solar companies with customers, says the company hasn't seen any decrease in the number of active vetted installers working in the state.

It’s also true that the most successful companies are used to the “solar coaster,” the ebb and flow of sales based on policies as well as market conditions. Installations rose sharply immediately after the pandemic, when Duke was still offering rebates, the old net metering rates were in effect, and interest rates were low. That all changed. 

“As usual, we have all these cross currents in the industry,” said Hollister. “I can say that probably the biggest chilling effect was the interest rate hikes.” 

‘An incredible program’

There’s another key factor fueling hope among solar installers: Power Pair, a battery incentive program implemented this spring that was the final puzzle piece in the net metering compromise with Duke. 

For adding a home battery, Duke customers can get a rebate on both it and their solar array. Combined with a 30% federal tax credit, the cash back could cut the cost of an average $40,500 system down to less than $20,000. 

Power Pair participants subscribed to the simpler bridge rate allow Duke to remotely manage their battery and earn an extra $37 a month on average. Enrollees in the more complicated time-of-use rate plan, on the other hand, don’t get monthly incentives but do retain full control of their systems. 

Installers say the incentive is a huge hit, with the great majority of their customers now choosing the bridge rate and buying a battery along with solar panels.

“It’s gotten us to a place where we always thought we would be,” said Miller of Yes Solar, “in that many, if not most, solar systems now include some element of storage.”

The battery inducement drove interest in solar overall, said Bryce Bruncati, director of residential sales with 8M Solar. A whopping 95% of its customers are now installing batteries with their solar systems, as opposed to about a quarter before. “The Power Pair program has been a big success,” he said. 

The uptick in batteries occurred statewide, according to EnergySage. Sixty-nine percent of North Carolina homeowners who went solar with EnergySage in the third quarter of 2024 included battery storage, compared to just 8% in the same period in 2023.

Still, Power Pair is just a pilot program, set to end when each Duke utility reaches a cap of 30,000 kilowatts. Duke reports about 2,000 participants as of early September. According to the company’s website, the utility serving the Asheville area and the eastern part of the state is 36% full, and the one serving central North Carolina is 21% full.

For the solar industry and its advocates, then, the priorities looking forward are several. Extend Power Pair, and count on market forces to make batteries and rooftop solar economically attractive even when the bridge rate expires in 2027. At the same time, expand the incentives to include small businesses and nonprofits, currently under new net metering rates.

“Power Pair has been an incredible program,” said Sugar Hollow’s Franko. Extending it to the commercial sector would make a huge difference, she said, “opening the door for new types of industries that probably aren't thinking about this because sustainability isn't their goal, but reliability would be.”

Correction: Duke Energy's Power Pair pilot program was 36% full for the utility serving the Asheville area and 21% full for the utility serving central North Carolina. An earlier version of this story included incorrect numbers.

Home rooftop solar dips in N.C. after Duke Energy reduces payments, but many installers unfazed is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

North Carolina regulators on Friday accepted Duke Energy’s controversial plan for curbing carbon pollution, a blueprint that ramps up renewable energy and ratchets down coal power but also includes 9 gigawatts of new plants that burn natural gas.

The biennial plan is mandated under a 2021 state law, which requires Duke to zero out its climate-warming emissions by midcentury and cut them 70% by the end of the decade.

The timing of the order from the North Carolina Utilities Commission, two months ahead of schedule, caught many advocates by surprise. But its content did not: it hewed closely to a settlement deal Duke reached this summer with a trade group for the renewable energy industry; Walmart; and Public Staff, the state-sanctioned ratepayer advocate.

But critics were dismayed by regulators’ abdication of the 2030 deadline. The ruling said Duke no longer needed a plan to make the reductions by decade’s end, instead telling it to “pursue ‘all reasonable steps’ to achieve the [70%] target by the earliest possible date.”

“Major step back on climate,” Maggie Shober, research director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy,” wrote on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, adding, “for those that say it couldn’t be done, Duke had a 67% reduction by 2030 in its 2020 [long-range plan.] The utility industry generally, and Duke in particular, has had opportunity after opportunity to do better. They chose not to, and here we are.”

EPA rules could complicate plans for gas plants

And while many observers say the three large gas plants approved in the near-term carbon plan are better than the five originally proposed by Duke, detractors note the facilities still could run afoul of rules finalized this spring by the Biden-Harris administration.

“Duke’s plan isn’t even compliant with the latest EPA regulations related to greenhouse gas pollution,” David Rogers, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, said in a statement. 

Concerns about the Biden-Harris rules, along with doubt that the natural gas plants could be converted to burn carbon-free hydrogen, appeared not to persuade regulators. 

“The Commission acknowledges that there are uncertainties and risks associated with new natural gas-fired generation resources, but this is true of all resources,” the panel wrote. 

On the contrary, regulators believe Duke can make use of gas plants after the state’s 2050 zero-carbon deadline, even if clean hydrogen doesn’t pan out.

“Accordingly,” the panel said, “the Commission determines that a 35-year anticipated useful life of new natural gas-fired generation and its assumed capital costs are reasonable for planning purposes.”

The greenlight for the gas infrastructure is not absolute, commissioners emphasized in their order, since Duke still must obtain a separate permit for the facilities. But advocates still bemoaned the anticipated impact on customers.

“This order leaves the door open for Duke Energy to stall on carbon compliance in order to develop additional resources, like natural gas, that largely benefit their shareholders over ratepayers,” Matt Abele, the executive director of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, said via text message.

‘Positive step’ for offshore wind

Still, Abele and other advocates acknowledged the plan’s upsides, including its increase in renewables like solar and batteries. The 2022 plan limited those resources to about 1 gigawatt per year; this year’s version increases the short-term annual addition to about 1.7 gigawatts.

Regulators’ decision to bless 2.4 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2034 and call for Duke to complete an “Acquisition Request for Information” by next summer also drew measured praise. 

“This order is an overall positive step for offshore wind,” Karly Lohan, North Carolina program manager for the Southeastern Wind Coalition, said in an email, adding, “we still need to see Duke move with urgency and administer the [request for information] as soon as possible.”

With regulators required to approve a new carbon-reduction plan for Duke every two years, advocates are already looking ahead to next year, when the process begins anew.

“Proceedings in 2025 present another chance to get North Carolina back on track to achieving the carbon reduction goals as directed by state law,” Will Scott, Environmental Defense Fund’s director of Southeast climate and clean energy, said in a statement.

“By accelerating offshore wind and solar, the Commission could still set a course for meaningful emissions reductions from the power sector that are fueling the effects of climate change, including dangerous and expensive storms like Hurricane Helene.”

And like Scott, David Neal, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, isn’t giving up on the state’s 2030 carbon-reduction deadline, the commission’s latest order notwithstanding.

“We’ll continue to push for the clean energy future that North Carolinians deserve and that state law and federal carbon pollution limits mandate,” he said in a statement.

Months ahead of schedule, North Carolina regulators accept Duke Energy’s controversial plan to reduce carbon is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Seventeen days after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, tearing down power lines, destroying water mains, and disabling cell phone towers, the signs of relief were hard to miss. 

Trucks formed a caravan along Interstate 40, filled with camouflaged soldiers, large square tanks of water, and essentials from pet food to diapers. In towns, roadside signs — official versions emblazoned with nonprofit relief logos and wooden makeshift ones scrawled with paint — advertised free food and water. 

And then there were the generators. 

The noisy machines powered the trailers where Asheville residents sought showers, weeks after the city’s water system failed. They fueled the food trucks delivering hot meals to the thousands without working stoves. They filtered water for communities to drink and flush toilets. 

Western North Carolina is far from unique. In the wake of disaster, generators are a staple of relief efforts around the globe. But across the region, a New Orleans-based nonprofit is working to displace as many of these fossil fuel burners as they can, swapping in batteries charged with solar panels instead. 

It’s the largest response effort the Footprint Project has ever deployed in its short life, and organizers hope the impact will extend far into the future. 

“If we can get this sustainable tech in fast, then when the real rebuild happens, there’s a whole new conversation that wouldn’t have happened if we were just doing the same thing that we did every time,” said Will Heegaard, operations director for the organization.  

“Responders use what they know works, and our job is to get them stuff that works better than single-use fossil fuels do,” he said. “And then, they can start asking for that. It trickles up to a systems change.” 

A ‘no-brainer’ solution to the problem of gas generators 

The rationale for diesel and gas generators is simple: they’re widely available. They’re relatively easy to operate. Assuming fuel is available, they can run 24-7, keeping people warm, fed, and connected to their loved ones even when the electric grid is down. Indubitably, they save lives.  

But they’re not without downsides. The burning of fossil fuels causes not just more just more carbon that exacerbates the climate crisis, but smog and soot-forming air pollutants that can trigger asthma attacks and other respiratory problems.  

In Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, generators were so prevalent after the electric grid failed that harmful air pollution in San Juan soared above the safe legal limit. The risk is especially acute for sensitive populations who turn to generators for powering vital equipment like oxygenators. 

There are also practical challenges. Generators aren’t cheap, retailing at big box stores for more than $1,000. Once initial fuel supplies run out — as happened in parts of Western North Carolina in the immediate aftermath of Helene — it can be difficult and costly to find more. And the machines are noisy, potentially harming health and creating more stress for aid workers and the people they serve. 

Heegaard witnessed these challenges firsthand in Guinea in 2016 when he was responding to an Ebola outbreak. A paramedic, his job was to train locals to collect blood samples and store them in generator-powered refrigerators that would be motorcycled to the city of Conakry for testing. He had a grant to give cash reimbursements to the lab techs for the fuel. 

“This is so hard already, and the idea of doing a cash reimbursement in a super poor rural country for gas generators seems really hard,” Heegaard recalled thinking. “I had heard of solar refrigerators. I asked the local logistician in Conakry, ‘Are these things even possible?’”  

The next day, the logistician said they were. They could be installed within a month. “It was just a no-brainer,” said Heegaard. “The only reason we hadn’t done it is the grant wasn’t written that way.” 

‘Game changing for a response’

Two years later, the Footprint Project was born of that experience. With just seven full-time staff, the group cycles in workers in the wake of disaster, partnering up with local solar companies, nonprofits and others, to gather supplies and distribute as many as they can. 

They deploy solar-powered charging stations, water filtration systems, and other so-called climate tech to communities who need it most — starting with those without power, water, or a generator at all, and extending to those looking to offset their fossil fuel combustion.

The group has now built nearly 50 such solar-powered microgrids in the region, from Lake Junaluska to Linville Falls, more than it has ever supplied in the wake of disaster. The recipients range from volunteer fire stations to trailer parks to an art collective in West Asheville.

Mike Talyad, a photographer who last year launched the collective to support artists of color, teamed up with the Grassroots Aid Partnership, a national nonprofit, to fill in relief gaps in the wake of Helene. “The whole city was trying to figure it out,” he said. 

Solar panels from Footprint that initially powered a water filter have now largely displaced the generators for the team’s food trucks, which last week were providing 1,000 meals a day. “When we did the switchover,” Talyad said, “it was a time when gas was still questionable.”

Last week, the team at Footprint also provided six solar panels, a Tesla battery, and charging station to displace a noisy generator at a retirement community in South Asheville.

The device was powering a system that sucked water from a pond, filtered it, and rendered it potable. Picking up their jugs of drinking water, a steady flow of residents oohed and aahed as the solar panels were installed, and sighed in relief when the din of the generator abated. 

“Most responders are not playing with solar microgrids because they’re better for the environment,” said Heegaard. “They’re playing with it because if they can turn their generator off for 12 hours a day, that means literally half the fuel savings. Some of them are spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on diesel or gas. That is game changing for a response.” 

‘Showing up for their neighbors’

Footprint’s robust relief effort and the variety of its beneficiaries is owed in part to the scale of Helene’s destruction, with more than 1 million in North Carolina alone who initially lost power.  

“It’s really hard to put into words what’s happening out there right now,” said Matt Abele, the executive director of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, who visited in the early days after the storm. “It is just the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever seen — whole mobile home parks that are just completely gone.” 

But the breadth of the response is also owed to Footprint’s approach to aid, which is rooted in connections to grassroots groups, government organizations, and the local solar industry. All have partnered together for the relief effort. 

“We’ve been incredibly overwhelmed by the positive response that we’ve seen from the clean energy community,” Abele said, “both from an equipment donation standpoint and a financial resources standpoint.” 

Some four hours east of the devastation in Western North Carolina, Greentech Renewables Raleigh has been soliciting and storing solar panels and other goods. It’s also raising money for products that are harder to get for free — like PV wire and batteries. Then it trucks the supplies west.

“We’ve got bodies, we’ve got trucks, we’ve got relationships,” said Shasten Jolley, the manager at the company, which warehouses and sells supplies to a variety of installers. “So, we try to utilize all those things to help out.”

The cargo is delivered to Mars Hill, a tiny college town about 20 miles north of Asheville that was virtually untouched by Helene. Through a local regional government organization, Frank Johnson, the owner of a robotics company, volunteered his 110,000-square-foot facility for storage.

Johnson is just one example of how people in the region have leapt to help each other, said Abele, who’s based in Raleigh.

“You can tell when you’re out there,” he said, “that so many people in the community are coping by showing up for their neighbors.”

‘Available for the next response’

To be sure, Footprint’s operations aren’t seamless at every turn. For instance, most of the donated solar panels designated for the South Asheville retirement community didn’t work, a fact the installers learned once they’d made the 40-minute drive in the morning and tried to connect them to the system. They returned later that afternoon with functioning units, but then faced the challenge of what to do with the broken ones.

“This is solar aid waste,” Heegaard said. “The last site we did yesterday had the same problem. Now we have to figure out how to recycle them.”

It’s also not uncommon for the microgrids to stop working, Heegaard said, because of understandable operator errors, like running them all night to provide heat.  

But above all, the problem for Footprint is scale. A tiny organization among behemoth relief groups, they simply don’t have the bandwidth for a larger response. When Milton followed immediately on the heels of Helene, Heegaard’s group made the difficult choice to hunker down in North Carolina. 

With climate-fueled weather disasters poised to increase, the organization hopes to entice the biggest, most well-resourced players in disaster relief to start regularly using solar microgrids in their efforts. 

As power is slowly restored across the region, with just over 5,000 remaining without electricity, there’s also the question of what comes next.

While there’s a parallel conversation underway among advocates and policymakers about making microgrids and distributed solar a more permanent feature of the grid, Footprint also hopes to inspire some of that change from the ground up. Maybe the volunteer fire station decides to put solar panels on its roof when it rebuilds, for instance. 

“We can change the conversation around resilience and recovery by directly pointing to something that worked when the lights were out and debris was in the street,” Heegaard said.

As for the actual Footprint equipment, the dream is to create “lending libraries” in places like Asheville, to be cycled in and out of community events and disaster relief.

“The solar trailer or the microgrid or the water maker that went to the Burnsville elementary school right after the storm – that can be recycled and used to power the music stage or the movie in the park,” Heegaard said. “Then that equipment is here, it’s being utilized, and it’s available for the next response, whether it’s in Knoxville or Atlanta or South Carolina.”

This disaster relief nonprofit is pioneering a clean energy alternative to noisy, polluting generators is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.